Study: Unordered Sleep Pattern Increases Risk Of 172 Diseases

JAKARTA - So far, experts have stated that the ideal duration of sleep for adults is between seven and nine hours per night. However, recently a study showed not only an important duration, but sleep regularity also played a major role in health.

The study was led by a team from Peking University and Army Medical University, and finding irregular sleep could increase the risk of 172 types of disease.

The researchers analyzed sleep data from Biobank UK for nearly seven years, involving 88,461 adults with an average age of 62 years. They pay attention to various aspects of sleep, including the duration of night sleep, bedtime, sleep rhythm, and sleep disorders.

Then, the data is compared to disease records from the National Health Service, Cancer Registry, and National Death Index.

The results were quite surprising. For 92 diseases, including parkinson disease and acute kidney failure, about 20% of the risk is associated with poor sleep patterns. Meanwhile, 42 other diseases have a double risk, such as age-related weaknesses, gangren, fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver.

Not only that, 122 other diseases have a 1.5-fold increase in risk, such as type 2 diabetes, respiratory failure, certain fractures, and urine incontinence. Researchers also suspect that the inflammation pathway in the body is one of the links between irregular sleep and the emergence of disease.

Some common diseases present considerable risks, such as Parkinson's, heart disease, lung disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, hyperthyroidism, and urine incontinence, "the researchers wrote in their publication in the journal Health Data Science, quoted from the New York Post page.

"Our findings emphasize the importance of sleep regularity that has often been overlooked. It's time for us to expand the definition of good sleep, not just about the duration," said Prof. Shengfeng Wang, one of the lead authors of this study.

"The results of this study are an important contribution to the growing evidence regarding the role of sleep as a modified risk factor for various health problems, especially in middle age and advanced," said Dr. Ashley Curtis of the University of South Florida, who was not involved in the study.

He also added how we measure sleep as important.

The difference between self-reported sleep patterns and data obtained from monitoring tools such as wearable devices can lead to different conclusions about their impact on health, said Dr. Curtis.

According to Dr. Curtis, understanding sleep patterns in more detail is important so that we know which aspects of sleep need to be monitored more closely, especially to prevent a decline in health in the future. He also said these findings provide insight into sleep physiological mechanisms that may trigger the development of various diseases.

However, this study also has some limitations. One of them is that participants who are involved do not represent the entire population, most of whom are middle-aged to elderly people, who are already more susceptible to various diseases.

In addition, the sleep data collected comes only from one seven-day period, without taking into account changes in sleep patterns over time. There is a possibility that external factors or inverse causes will also affect the results.

Dr. Curtis also highlighted that this study does not consider sleep disorders such as insomnia or sleep apnea.

"In fact, these two disorders are quite common in the elderly group. A more comprehensive follow-up study is needed to really understand the relationship between sleep disorders and other disease risks," he said.

In the future, the research team plans to conduct further studies to prove causal relationships and evaluate whether interventions in sleep patterns can have an impact on reducing the risk of chronic diseases.

The research is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Beijing Municipal Health Development Research Fund.